


Before the Party

by JacarandaBanyan



Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Bridge Four - Freeform, Everyone's a little bit sneaky, Kaladin being evasive, Multi, Pattern is a little sneak, Shallan's drawing skills, Shallan's sleuthing skills, it doesn't work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-18 00:45:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9355787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JacarandaBanyan/pseuds/JacarandaBanyan
Summary: Shallan finishes up a surprise for KaladinKaladin and Adolin try to surprise her as well, but are less successful.





	

Shallan bit her lip and tried to keep her arm from trembling as she filled in Adolin's pupil. She had to make absolutely certain that her wet arm did not come in contact with the paper. She had waited patiently for the right moment to take this particular mental picture, and she had no intention of messing it up now that she finally had a chance to draw it.

Pattern vibrated curiously from his spot on the floor.

"Why didn't you wait until after you'd finished your bath?"

"Because I need to finish it before Kaladin gets here, and this is the only free time I can count on between then and now." She put the pencil down and slumped back into the water. "As soon as I finish my bath, I have to go get ready for Highprince Sebarial's party, and the maids will be in and out."

She sat up in the water again and resumed her work on Adolin's face. It was almost done; a little more work on the hair, a little more definition on the stone, and it would be complete. She shouldn't rush it, really, and she didn't even need to finish it tonight- there was no senior Brightlady scholar breathing down her neck to get this done, no dire consequences for lateness. But she wouldn't get the chance to see Kaladin tomorrow, so it had to be tonight.

Pattern hummed on the damp bathroom floor. "Is this a typical gift among humans?"

"Not really. As far as I can tell, the other Brightladies see projects like this as a waste of time. If _some _of them I can think of had their way, I'd probably do nothing but make serious, scientific drawings all day, every day. It's more of a joke." She considered that. "But I guess joke gifts are common among humans."__

"I see," he hummed.

Shallan applied a bit more pressure to the charcoal and ignored the goosebumps spreading across her rapidly drying arm. Just a little bit more…

"Done!" She exclaimed. "Now I just have to put it with the others." She began emptying the bath, then climbed out and began rubbing herself dry with a nearby towel.

"Pattern," she asked as she wrung her hair out, "did you hear anything interesting today?"

"I wonder if we can catch Shallan before the party ends," Pattern muttered in Adolin's voice. "It's been a while since the three of us were all together."

"There likely won't be a good opening." Kaladin's voice answered. "A lot of people will be keeping an eye on her now that everyone knows she's got Radiant powers. Between all the people watching the two of you and all the soldiers staring at me, it'll be impossible to get together tonight without everyone talking about it by tomorrow morning. We'll just have to wait a few more days for our schedules to all match up."

"Wait a minute," Adolin replied. "Wasn't it your idea to surprise her with a night in with all three of us together? Besides, couldn't she just Lightweave her way around all that? Oof-!"

Pattern rippled a bit as he worked to reproduce the sound of Kaladin's foot connecting with Adolin's shin.

"Hey, what was that for?"

Kaladin's sighed. "Princeling, our girlfriend's spren is a little sneak, and she encourages it. If you were paying attention, you'd have noticed it over there in the corner."

"Oh."

"So there goes that surprise."

A pause.

"But we can still do it, right?"

"Of course, Princeling. At this point it would probably be bad form not to."

"My, my, Bridgeboy, it seems some of our social graces are finally rubbing off on you! Next thing you know, you'll be smiling on command!"

"Very funny." His voice rose. "I know you're still there, spren. Shoo; go report back to Shallan. Tell her to try and wear shoes she can run in in case we need to make a quick getaway."

Pattern switched back to his own voice. "Such a nice deception it would have been. Hmm, but it was a good truth to reveal, too, I think."

Shallan gave her hair one last vigorous rub with the towel before tossing it aside and absentmindedly pulling on a night robe. Time to finish up her little project.

Kaladin was notorious for being tight-lipped about the details of his past. Oh, fiery denunciations of systematic injustice by way of anecdotes were fine. But personal details, those you could pry from his cold, dead fingers. Even Bridge Four didn't know much, and they were always on the lookout for a stray comment from their Captain that might hint at his previous life. So Shallan considered it a miracle from the Almighty that Kaladin's enlistment papers just so happened to include his birthday, and that she had just so happened to stumble across those papers in a huge stack of backlogged military paperwork in one of the Kholin war offices.

It was a shame that Shallan had already agreed to meet with the Ghostbloods that day, but Kaladin wasn't getting out of a celebration that easily. She'd told Renarin what she'd found, and he'd relayed the information to his brother and Bridge Four. There would be a celebration whether or not Shallan could come.

She could still give him a gift though.

A small stack of drawings sat on a low table in her dressing room. She had drawn them over the course of several days in preparation for tomorrow, but the Ghostbloods meeting schedule had forced her to finish up tonight instead.

No matter. She could draw fast.

She placed the last drawing on top, then carefully adjusted the stack so that each corner and edge matched up perfectly. Now all she had to do was bind them together into a loose book, and it would be ready to go.

There was a knock at her door.

"Yes?" She called. That must be the maid.

"It's me," Kaladin called. "Can I come in?"

Shallan gasped and began frantically searching for a bit of thread. Just a couple of stitches and the ‘book’ would be complete, but where had she put the thread?

“One minute!” She hollered over her shoulder. She yanked open a couple of drawers only to slam them shut again. She’d _just _seen the storming thing!__

Kaladin cleared his throat. “Do you need help, Shallan?”

“No, I’m good!”

There! In the back of the closet! She threw open the sewing-box she’d barely touched since arriving. She groped around the inside of the box blindly until her hand closed on a spool of blue thread.

“Are you sure? It sounds an awful lot like you’re being attacked, and as Captain of the Cobalt Guard I’m bound to come barging in and rescue you.” He sounded amused.

“I’m not being kidnapped, I’m just… not decent!”

Where had she put the needle? There it was!

“Shallan, I’m having a very hard time thinking of how you could possibly be any less decent than I’ve seen you before.”

Just a couple of stitches… and… done!

“Okay, come in!”

Kaladin walked in and crossed his arms. His eyebrows looked awful judgmental. “I’m sure your little sneakspren already informed you about our plans for tonight?”

Pattern hummed on the floor. Kaladin glared half-heartedly at him. “You don’t have to tell her every last thing, you know,” he said. Then his eyes fell on the book in Shallan’s hand. “And what’s this?”

“An early birthday present.”

He looked at her sharply. “I didn’t tell you when that was.”

“I have other ways of finding out.”

“It’s not a big deal. You didn’t have to do this.”

“I didn’t _have _to, I _wanted _to.”____

“What makes you so sure that today is my birthday, hmm?”

Shallan smirked. So that was how it was going to be. “I don’t _think _it’s today, I _know _it’s tomorrow. I found your enlistment papers, and they had your birthday on them.”____

Kaladin stared at her, and for just a second she saw the gleam in his eyes that meant he was going to reveal just how thoroughly he’d managed to thwart her. “But you see, Shallan, the date on my enlistment papers is wrong.”

“Are you telling me you lied on your official enlistment forms?”

He shrugged. “Not exactly. I tried to put down nothing, but the scribe was annoyingly persistent, so I told her to just put down any random day. I don’t see how it matters. I can do my job regardless of whether I’m twenty or twenty-one on any given day.”

She tried another track. “You haven’t even looked at it properly.”

He examined the makeshift book. “You know I can’t read, right?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not that kind of book.”

He finally flipped it open. After a second or two of staring, he smiled. Nothing big or flashy, just a small smile.

Each page was an illustration made using the Memories she’d taken the other day. She had taken Adolin and two Bridge Four guards with her on a quick detour to ‘study the natural history of the area,’ but the real purpose had been to take humorous Memories of him. Each page was a different one- Adolin having a very serious argument with his horse, Adolin falling off one of the shorter cliffs, Adolin bossily ordering about an unheeding group of cremlings, Adolin shrieking comically as a grasper emerged from its hole to snatch up one of the cremlings…

“Thank you,” he finally said. “I shall treasure this forever and ever. In fact, I think I should carry it around with me to use when our little Princeling starts getting snippy.”

“What’s this about me being snippy?” Adolin appeared in the doorway. “I’ll have you know I’m an absolute ray of sunshine at all times.”

“Just giving him his birthday present.”

“I see.” His grin turned mischievous. “I hope you know that no one appreciates your secrecy, Bridgeboy. We’re throwing a party whether you like it or not.”

“Even if it’s not actually my birthday?”

“You bet. I’ve already told everyone in Bridge Four that tomorrow is your big day, so you’re just going to have to suck it up and let them celebrate.”

“What’s this now?” Adolin asked.

Shallan rolled her eyes. “Our dear boyfriend lied about his birthday on his enlistment forms because he didn’t think it was important.”

“I didn’t lie, I just didn’t tell them when it was!”

Adolin leveled a glare at Kaladin, but it didn’t carry much weight. “Honestly, I don’t know why I’m so surprised.” He shook his head in mock displeasure. “Anyway, are you two ready to go? The sooner we get to the party, the sooner we can sneak off.”

“You know, Princeling, I never thought I’d see the day when you would be excited to leave a party. It used to be all I could do to not fall asleep watching you prattle on about nothing with other Lighteyes while you eyed each other’s clothes.”

“It was all you could do not to fall asleep because you were barely sleeping.”

“I sleep!”

“I distinctly remember you saying ‘I don’t need sleep, I slept yesterday.’”

Shallan drifted away from their good-natured arguing to finish getting dressed. They probably wouldn’t notice she’d left until she was done.

Now, she had been warned she’d need shoes she could run in. Where had she put the boots she’d gotten for her Veil disguise?

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me if I made any mistakes!


End file.
